Television History - A Timeline

1831
Joseph Henry's and Michael Faraday's work with electromagnetism jumpstarts
the era of electronic communication.

1862 First Still Image Transferred

Abbe Giovanna Caselli invents his Pantelegraph and becomes the first person to
transmit a still image over wires.

1873
Scientists May and Smith experiment with selenium and light, this reveals the
possibility for inventors to transform images into electronic signals.

Late 1870s
Scientists and engineers like Paiva, Figuier, and Senlecq were suggesting
alternative designs for Telectroscopes.

1880
Inventors Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison theorize about telephone
devices that transmit image as well as sound.
Bell's Photophone used light to transmit sound and he wanted to advance his
device for image sending.
George Carey builds a rudimentary system with light-sensitive cells.

1881

Sheldon Bidwell experiments with his Telephotography that was similar to Bell's
Photophone.

1884 18 Lines of Resolution

Paul Nipkow sends images over wires using a rotating metal disk technology
calling it the electric telescope with 18 lines of resolution.

1900 And We Called It Television

At the World's Fair in Paris, the first International Congress of Electricity was held.
That is where Russian Constantin Perskyi made the first known use of the word
"television."
1906 - First Mechanical Television System
Lee de Forest invents the Audio vacuum tube that proved essential to
electronics. The Audio was the first tube with the ability to amplify signals.
Boris Rosing combines Nipkow's disk and a cathode ray tube and builds the first
working mechanical TV system.

1907 Early Electronic Systems

Campbell Swinton and Boris Rosing suggest using cathode ray tubes to
transmit images. Independent of each other, they both develop electronic
scanning methods of reproducing images.

1923

Vladimir Zworkin patents his iconscope a TV camera tube based on Campbell

Swinton's ideas. The iconscope, which he called an electric eye becomes the
cornerstone for further television development. Zworkin later develops the
kinescope for picture display (aka the reciever).

1924/25 First Moving Silhouette Images

American Charles Jenkins and John Baird from Scotland, each demonstrate the
mechanical transmissions of images over wire circuits.
John Baird becomes the first person to transmit moving silhouette images using
a mechanical system based on Nipkow's disk.
Charles Jenkin built his Radiovisor and 1931 and sold it as a kit for consumers
to put together (see photo to right).
Vladimir Zworkin patents a color television system.

1926 30 Lines of Resolution

John Baird operates a television system with 30 lines of resolution system

running at 5 frames per second.

1927

Philo Farnsworth, files for a patent on the first complete electronic television system,
which he called the Image Dissector.
1929
Vladimir Zworkin demonstrates the first practical electronic system for both the
transmission and reception of images using his new kinescope tube.
John Baird opens the first TV studio, however, the image quality was poor.

1930
Charles Jenkins broadcasts the first TV commercial.
The BBC begins regular TV transmissions.

1933
Iowa State University (W9XK) starts broadcasting twice weekly television
programs in cooperation with radio station WSUI.

1936
About 200 hundred television sets are in use world-wide.
The introduction of coaxial cable, which is a pure copper or copper-coated wire
surrounded by insulation and an aluminum covering.

1937
CBS begins its TV development.
The BBC begins high definition broadcasts in London.

The Dumont Company starts making TV sets.

1940
Peter Goldmark invents a 343 lines of resolution color television system.

1941

The FCC releases the NTSC standard for black and white TV.

1946

Peter Goldmark, working for CBS, demonstrated his color television system to
the FCC. His system produced color pictures by having a red-blue-green wheel
spin in front of a cathode ray tube.
1948
Cable television is introduced in Pennsylvania as a means of bringing television
to rural areas.
A patent was granted to Louis W. Parker for a low-cost television receiver.
One million homes in the United States have television sets.

1950
The FCC approves the first color television standard which is replaced by a
second in 1953.

1956
Ampex introduces the first practical videotape system of broadcast quality.

Robert Adler invents the first practical remote control called the Zenith Space
Commander. It was proceeded by wired remotes and units that failed in sunlight.

1962
The All Channel Receiver Act requires that UHF tuners (channels 14 to 83) be
included in all sets.
AT&T launches Telstar, the first satellite to carry TV broadcasts - broadcasts
are now internationally relayed.

1967
Most TV broadcasts are in color.

1969
July 20, first TV transmission from the moon and 600 million people watch.

1972
Half the TVs in homes are color sets.

1973
Giant screen projection TV is first marketed.

1976
Sony introduces betamax, the first home video cassette recorder.

1978
PBS becomes the first station to switch to all satellite delivery of programs.

1981 1,125 Lines of Resolution

NHK demonstrates HDTV with 1,125 lines of resolution.

1982
Dolby surround sound for home sets is introduced.

1983
Direct Broadcast Satellite begins service in Indianapolis, In.

1984
Stereo TV broadcasts approved.

1986
Super VHS introduced.

1993
Closed captioning required on all sets.

1996
The FCC approves ATSC's HDTV standard.
A billion TV sets world-wide.

2006

First HD broadcasts begin.

2010

First 3D TV goes on sale.